In Part I and II, we showcased how half Maine Coon cat Bao Zi and her cat pawrents Hélène and Alice from Boston, USA, started travelling together. In this final Part III we expand some more on Bao Zi’s habits and favorite activities while traveling, and end with her adventures in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Traveling Habits
When it's time to go on a daily hike and to put her leash on, she sits very still and moves her body around so Hélène and Alice can access the straps better. She hops into the car eagerly and usually sits on the center console so she can see out the windshield.
While hiking, Bao Zi is usually the one who is pulling her pawrents down the trail, because she has so many places to explore. She especially fancies searching holes and rocky crevices are her favorites.
When they arrive back home, she pauses at the front door for her pawrents to remove her harness. Once she is free, she rolls around on the floor happily and demands snuggles.
Whenever Hélène and Alice get to a new house, they are at a new Airbnb almost every week, Bao Zi is always the first one inside, exploring and checking it out for them and finding her new favorite place for the week.
Bao Zi’s Favourites
Bao Zi’s favourite treat is drinking a little of their cereal milk every morning. Her pawrents always leave her a little leftover as a treat and put the bowl on the floor for her.
Even though they are always travelling, some things remain the same: Bao Zi spends every night sleeping on the bottom right-hand corner of the bed by Alice’s feet! This is true whether they are sleeping in an Airbnb/hotel bed, tent camping or car camping, even when there is very little room for her!
She enjoys the water! She loves playing in the bathtub whenever Hélène is bathing and when it's hot. There's nothing she likes better than either swimming or having Hélène and Alice pour water gently all over her to wet her down and cool her off.
A weird habit of hers is that she loves to sleep with her head laying halfway inside someone's shoe. The smellier the better!
Her favorite type of adventure is bike riding! Hélène and Alice have a cat bike basket that attaches to Hélène’s handlebars and she loves riding with her paws on the front edge and her head leaned forward to sniff at the world with her whiskers waving in the wind!
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan Visit
Not every cat from the US or Europe has the convenience to travel far and wide, though. Since her pawrents are working remote to an education tech and an insurance tech company, Bao Zi has this privilege.
For Bao Zi’s visit to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, Hélène and Alice had to get special paperwork done. Hélène and Alice have documented this in their travel guide. They hope to show with this guide how they prepare for such a far-away journey and to inspire other cat lovers to do the same.
While being in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, each for 10 days, they noticed how everyone loves cats! Bao Zi was welcome everywhere, from mosques to hotels, restaurants and homestays. When they arrived at the restaurants, all the wait staff were so excited about Bao Zi and wanted to take photos of themselves holding her.
One of the highlights of the Tajikistan visit was that one of the homestays had a lot of children and they all loved Bao Zi! One night, there was a birthday party and they all wanted to dance with her and play with her. Bao Zi was so sweet about it and loved socialising with everyone! Finally, Hélène and Alice did a lot of mountain hiking and she absolutely loved it! She was so happy on the mountain passes sniffing around and prancing in the snow.
When visiting Uzbekistan and the mosques, Hélène and Alice learned that the prophet Muhammed loved cats! There is a story about how a cat was sleeping on his robe and he didn’t want to disturb the cat when he had to get up, so he literally cut off that part of his robe to let the cat keep sleeping. That’s why cats are welcome everywhere, even in mosques.
In Kyrgyzstan, Bao Zi and her cat pawrents especially enjoyed staying in a traditional Yurt overnight.
Bao Zi’s Travel Wish for Other Cats
Bao Zi and her pawrents wish people understood that travel can be good for cats! Bao Zi used to be so anxious and unhealthy until she started travelling with her pawrents. Now all her veterinarians say how healthy she is!
People make a lot of assumptions about what cats are capable of and underestimate cats. Let’s celebrate their resilience, uniqueness and immeasurable capacity for learning and connecting people with each other!
You can follow Bao Zi on her Instagram account. Click to read Part I and Part II.
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